The Letting Centre

My boyfriend wants to move out of his place that he shares with 2 others. All their names are on the tenancy agreement.
All he wants to do is remove his name and put a new name of the new tenant onto the tenancy agreement.
The agent is wanting to charge £320 + VAT in order to do this. That seems like a lot of money for a simple name change.
Can anyone advise please?

Also there is an adendum on the tenancy that says after the first quarter of the tenancy the property will be managed by the landlord and no longer by the agent. So does that mean my boyfriend should be dealing with the landlord and not the agency at all?
However, only the tennants and the agent have signed this agreement, not the landlord?
Also the tenancy makes no reference to a notice period at all ( 2year lease that comes up in April 2008) - the whole agreement seems a bit shaky.
Help please.
Thanks,
Sarah

The charge sounds excessive.  The Office of Fair Trading could probably help with this if the contract is sent to them if you are able to do that.  From what you write it sounds as if the contract may not be valid at all.

I would suggest that its not 'simply' a name change. 

The agent/owner will want to take up full references up on the new tenant, a new agreement will need to be sent to the others to sign and the owner, registration under the TDS will now have to occure and further admin at the end of the tenancy.

There will be a fair amount of costs incurred for doing all of the above and for the end of the tenancy which wernt there when the tenancy started which will also affect the fee